Jan 18, 2010

Happy New Year!... I know its been 2010 for almost a month now but I just wanted to tell you about my big new years resolution. I realize that following blogs of the photographers that I look up to is one of my favorite ways to learn and gain inspiration. My hope is that I too can provide that for a photographer or two. So one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog, blog, blog. Minimum one blog per month. I hope that I can help to teach and or inspire another photographer with my blog.

Christy and I spent this past weekend in New Hampshire with a bunch of my Providence College buddies... It was a blast. Before we began the trip home, Christy and I stopped at a park right down the street from my friends house. I've passed this park several times and frequently look up at the cliffs to spot the ice climbers. We decided to stop and watch. Here is what I captured.

A few tips for shooting ICE Climbing

-If you are shooting Aperture priority (Av) or Shutter Pritority (Tv), out-smart your camera!... Over expose about 1 stop. The camera wants to expose for middle gray on the ice. Over-expose the wall until the ice begins to blow-out and then back-off 1/3 stop. Once you've got the exposure set... I recommend switching to Manual dailing in and then firing away. This rule can work for shooting anything in snow/ice/or bright white. Do the opposite when photographing something black.

-Get Close to the wall but watch-out for falling ice chunks. Next time I'm bringing my snowboarding helmet.

-Play around with angles. if you tilt the camera certain ways the climb will look twice as intense. Don't get too carried away or else your viewers will wonder why the ice and trees are growing sideways and the climber is relaxed while cliffhanging.

A big thanks to the climbers I met that day... They were great people! Within a half hour they were sharing their gorpum, trying to get Christy and I on the ice with their gear, and inviting us to future trips. Thanks for being so friendly.

Here are some of the shots I got. I wish I took a few more shots of the details; close ups of the cramp-ons, axes, carribeaners, rope, ice... there was soo much to photograph.